A Quick Look: BELA LUGOSI MEETS A BROOKLYN GORILLA (1952)

   In the 1940's, Abbott and Costello were the nation's top comedy team, keeping Universal on top of the books. RKO fashioned their own comedy team of Wally Brown and Alan Carney, and produced their own series of Abbott and Costello movies, only minus Abbott and Costello. Come the 50's and Martin and Lewis are taking the world by storm. The formula was tried again, with Duke Mitchell and Sammy Petrillo playing characters so similar to Dean and Jerry that Lewis sued. BELA LUGOSI MEETS A BROOKLYN GORILLA was the only film Mitchell and Petrillo ever did as a team. Sammy did such a good Lewis act, however, that he would later be a guest on Jerry's show in the role of a relative! By the way, Bela had earlier done a Brown and Carney vehicle called ZOMBIES ON BROADWAY. Our current subject finds Bela playing a mad scientist working on a secluded tropical island. When a pair of actors end up stranded on the island, and the suave one takes a liking to Bela's intended, Lugosi responds by turning Mitchell into a gorilla! Some genuine laughs to be found, but you spend most of it considering how surreal it is to have Martin and Lewis, for all intents and purposes, not played by Martin and Lewis. Brown and Carney made a better comedy team, as they could hold their own beyond being carbon copies of Bud and Lou. Martin and Lewis, on the other hand, were just too unique to copy successfully.